The governor of Shanxi resigned as the death toll from a mudslide triggered by the collapse of an illegal mining dump in the northern Chinese province rose to 254, official media have reported, reports The Guardian.

Meng Xuenong became governor only eight months ago - a rehabilitation that came five years after he was sacked as mayor of Beijing over the handling of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak.

The campaign of US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama today announced it had raised a record $66m in August with the help of more than half a million new donors.

Obama's total for August was almost $20 million more than the $47 million his Republican rival, John McCain, raised last month - giving the Democratic candidate a possible cash advantage in the race for the White House.

The government wants to restore political faith and democratic norms by trying to get Awami League president Sheikh Hasina and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia to sit together, an adviser said on Monday.

"Making arrangements for the two leaders to sit across the table is not the government's only task. But it has a symbolic significance," commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman told reporters at Chittagong Circuit House after a review meeting on the development of the port city.

Over 300 taxpayers were awarded Monday when the interim government observed the first National Income Tax Day in an effort to sensitise the public to tax issues.

Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed who left for China on an urgent visit was scheduled to attend the day's main event organised by the National Board of Revenue at the China-Bangladesh Friendship Conference Center.

Bus operators started selling advance tickets from Monday for the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr holidays, though complaints were heard on the day of not getting tickets despite queuing for hours, reports bdnews24.com.

The EC will announce the dates for general elections and Upazila and Dhaka City Corporation polls after capping its third-round dialogue by holding talks with BNP this week, chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda said Monday.

However, he added, the election schedules will not be announced right away.

The High Court has refused to hear the bail plea of Chittagong City Corporation mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury in the Bijoy TV corruption case.

Dr Kamal Hossain, representing Mohiuddin, said the mayor was very sick and urged the High Court vacation bench of Justice Khondker Musa Khaled and Justice Farid Ahmed to hear the bail prayer on Sunday.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Indian police planned to release sketches Monday of suspects behind New Delhi bombings that left more than 20 dead, as media flayed the government for lacking a coherent counter-terrorism policy.

Karnal Singh, a senior police official investigating the five bombs that ripped through crowded markets in the Indian capital on Saturday, said several people had been taken in for questioning but no arrests had been made.

AP, NEW YORK -- Oil prices plunged to a seven-month low Monday as the Gulf Coast energy infrastructure appeared relatively unharmed after Hurricane Ike and traders bet that Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy could ignite a massive liquidation of commodities.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery fell $4.87, or 4.82 percent, to $96.38 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier dropping to $94.41, the lowest level since Feb. 14. A close at that level would be oil's first settlement under $100 since March 4.